Valencia

They play in La Liga and are one of the most successful and biggest clubs in Spanish football. Valencia have won six La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey trophies, two Fairs Cups which was the predecessor to the UEFA Cup, one UEFA Cup, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, two UEFA Super Cups and two Spanish Super Cups. They have also reached two UEFA Champions League finals in a row, losing to La Liga rivals Real Madrid in 2000 and then German club Bayern Munich in 2001. Valencia were also members of the G-14  group of leading European football clubs. In total, Valencia have reached seven major European finals, winning four of them.

In the all-time La Liga table, Valencia is in 3rd position behind Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. In terms of international titles, Valencia is again the 3rd-most successful behind Real Madrid and Barcelona - these three being the only Spanish clubs to have won five or more international trophies.

Valencia were founded in 1919, and have played their home games at the 55,000-seater Estadio Mestalla since 1923. They are soon to move into the 75,000-seater Nou Mestalla in the north-west of the city in 2011. Valencia have a long-standing rivalry with Levante, also located in Valencia, and with another club in the Valencian Community region, Villarreal.

Valencia are the third most supported football club in Spain, only behind Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. It is also one of the biggest clubs in the world in terms of number of associates (registered paying supporters), with more than 50,000 season ticket holders and another 20,000+ season ticket holders on the waiting list, which will come into effect once the new 75,000-seater stadium is built.

HISTORY

In 1919, the centre of the Turia River capital, in the Torino Bar, the idea of creating a football club was put into action. The first president of Valencia Football Club, Octavio Augusto Milego, was elected at random: a coin tossed into the air helped decide between himself or Gonzalo Medina Pernás, who himself finally got the department of the constituent and festivities commission.

Nevertheless, the decision of these Valencian pioneers did not have any repercussion either in society or in the media, since the newspapers of the time hardly dealt with sports and, moreover, the socio-political situation of Spain was uncertain. Before the founding of Valencia Football Club, there was already football in the city although there was no dominant club. It seems that football arrived in Valencia thanks to those people in the citrus fruits export business who had visited Great Britain, the cradle of football. That was the case of Francisco Sinisterra or Ramón Leonarte. In the same way, it was pretty common to see British sailors at Valencian ports playing with a ball. Already in 1908, there were several teams in Valencia like Levante, Gimnástico, Hispania or Hispano.

Once the club was set up, the first match played by Valencia was away from home. It took place in Castellón on 21 May 1919. Valencia’s rival was the Valencian Gimnástico, who won 1-0. The first Valencian line-up in history was: Marco, Peris, Julio Gascó, Marzal, Llobet, Ferré, Fernández, Umbert, Martínez Ibarra, Aliaga and Gómez Juaneda.

Valencia's first stadium was Algirós, opened on 7 December 1919. Algirós was the setting for all the club’s matches until 1923, when they started playing in the Estadio Mestalla. Valencia's first game at Mestalla was a 0-0 draw against Castellón Castalia. Both teams played again the following day and Valencia won 1-0.

Little by little, crowds at Algirós began to grow. Back then, entry tickets were 25 cents and the takings at the gate started to be enough to cover expenses.

A new period for the Mestalla club started in 1992, when it became a Sporting Limited Company. There was a big social commotion during the following five years. After the indisputable success in the economic management led by Arturo Tuzón, the defeat by Karlsruher SC meant the beginning of the end of his period as president of Valencia.

The 1993-94 season started well for Valencia, who soon was first in the league and started the UEFA Cup eliminating the French team FC Nantes, who featured players such as Loko, Claude Makélélé, Karembeu and Pedros. That summer, Valencia bought Predrag Mijatović, who became one of the best players of Valencia in that decade, but left the club in a shocking way to rivals Real Madrid. As leader of the league on 2 November 1993, Valencia played in Germany in the return match of the UEFA Cup second round. In the first match, Hiddink's team won 3-1, so it seemed likely that they would qualify for the next round. But a large defeat by 7-0 meant for Valencia the worst European defeat in its history. Guus Hiddink was sacked after losing to Sporting de Gijón the following weekend.

Francisco Real, who up until that moment was member of the technical team of the club, replaced Hiddink. He could raise neither the morale nor the results of the team and after five games was replaced by Héctor Núñez, a Uruguayan forward who had played for Valencia in the '60s. Meanwhile, the board of directors, led by Arturo Tuzón, started to crack. The resignations and internal scandals caused Tuzón's resignation, who was temporally replaced by Melchor Hoyos. An election process was opened that would bring Francisco Roig to the presidency, after beating the other candidate, Ramón Romero, in the polls. Meanwhile, Luboslav Penev, the star of the team, was diagnosed with testicular cancer that kept him away from football for a year, but from which he fortunately recovered completely. A very young Gaizka Mendieta started to play his first matches as well; he had signed coming from CD Castellón and became the big star of Valencia. Another personal tragedy happened in Valencia in September 1993: the Panamanian forward Rommel Fernández, on loan to Albacete Balompié, was killed in a car accident.

On 9 March 1994, Francisco Roig was elected president and in his first decision as president, only hours after winning the election, was to dismiss Héctor Núñez as manager and appointed Jesús Martínez as technical secretary. While they were deciding who would be the substitute for Núñez, the second coach José Manuel Rielo became main coach. Roig's decision for coach was surprising: Guus Hiddink was again chosen, only five months after his dismissal. Valencia straightened out their path, played better football and got better results at the end of the season.

Roig took advantage of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, which took place in the United States, to hire the person who would become coach of the world champions, the Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira. Other outstanding people that signed up for Valencia were Andoni Zubizarreta, the number one goalkeeper of the Spanish national team, and the Russian forward Oleg Salenko, who would end up being the top goalscorer of the World Cup. Unfortunately, Salenko did not shine in Valencia as much as he did in the United States. In the 1994-95 season, Valencia reached the final of the Copa del Rey, having previously dismissed the coach. Parreira was dismissed in the Cup semi-finals, against Albacete Balompié, and Rielo was in charge of the team again. In the final, Valencia played Deportivo La Coruña on 24 June 1995, the game was postponed due to a heavy downpour with the score at 1-1. They had to play the remaining time three days later, a goal scored by Alfredo prevented Valencia from getting the victory.

The 1995-96 season started with a new coach, the veteran Luis Aragonés who took Valencia to second place in the league within four points of the title with a team in which Zubizarreta, Camarasa, Fernando and Mijatović stood out. Atlético Madrid, who had hired Luboslav Penev, were the champions that season along with the King's cup to achieve the league and cup double. Predrag Mijatović, the Valencia star at the time, signed for Real Madrid who paid the minimum release clause in his contract, which was met with resentment from the Valencia faithful.

In the summer of 1996, Francisco Roig carried out his will of signing the Brazilian superstar Romário. Nevertheless, the brilliant and rebellious Brazilian forward clashed with Aragonés and was sold to Flamengo. His signing coincided with the signing of the Argentine winger Claudio López, another future idol of the Valencia supporters. The bad results obtained in the league caused the dismissal of the coach from Madrid and he was replaced by Jorge Valdano. The Argentine coach made his debut in November 1996 and finished the new season without any titles, having been eliminated from the Cup by UD Las Palmas and beaten in the UEFA Cup by the German side Schalke 04, who would end up winning the competition. In December of the same year, Valencia signed another South American star, the Argentine Ariel Ortega.

Valdano started the 1997-98 season, but he was dismissed after three matches, after losing to RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona and Racing de Santander. Jesús Martínez had also been dismissed as technical secretary, position that was now taken up by the Valencian Javier Subirats. Valdano's substitute was the Italian Claudio Ranieri, who quickly clashed with Romário - who was back from his loan to Flamengo - and Ortega, whose form was inconsistent. So much chaos caused the resignation of Francisco Roig as president, Pedro Cortés, vice-president up until that moment, accepted the club management on 2 December 1997. Valencia was in the relegation zone in the league and also had modest results in the Cup competitions. Valencia finished the league in ninth position, thus getting the right to participate in the Intertoto Cup, a new competition through which it was possible to enter the UEFA Cup competition. The only signing in the middle of the season was the Romanian forward Adrian Ilie, whose first months as a Valencia player were spectacular.

Claudio Ranieri started the 1998-99 season with the qualification of Valencia, through the Intertoto, for the UEFA Cup, where they were eliminated by Liverpool. In the league, Valencia finished fourth, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League. But the great success of this season happened in the Copa del Rey: Valencia won the competition in the Olympic stadium of Seville, by beating Atlético Madrid 3-0 on 26 June 1999, with a great goal by Mendieta and two by ‘Piojo’ López. The euphoria that the Valencia supporters experienced was indescribable, and the well-deserved festivities are still remembered. The heroes of the cup winning team were Cañizares, Angloma, Đukić, Roche, Carboni, Mendieta, Milla, Farinós, Vlaović, Ilie and Claudio López. Juanfran, Angulo and Björklund also played.

But Ranieri did not continue managing Valencia, the Roman coach had committed himself to Atlético Madrid in the spring of 1999, the same team he had beaten in the Copa del Rey. In order to replace him, the Argentine Héctor Cúper was chosen, who had arrived in RCD Mallorca two seasons before offering an incredible performance for the Balearic club: one Spanish Super Cup, one Copa del Rey final and one Cup winners' Cup final. The most notable signing that summer was of the Argentine left winger Kily González.
[edit] The 2000s: Valencia returns to the top of Spanish and European football
Mestalla in the title game of 2004 La Liga

Valencia started the 1999–00 season by winning another title, the Spanish Super Cup, beating Barcelona. Valencia finished third in the league, behind the champions Deportivo La Coruña and level on points with second placed Barça. But the biggest success was in the UEFA Champions League; for the first time in its history, Valencia reached the European Cup final. However, in the final played in Paris on 24 May 2000, Real Madrid beat Valencia 3–0.

It was also Claudio López's farewell, as he had agreed to sign for the Italian side Lazio, also leaving was Farinós for Internazionale and Gerard for Barcelona. The notable signings of that summer were, the Norwegian John Carew, Rubén Baraja from Atlético Madrid, the Argentine Roberto Ayala and the Brazilian left back Fábio Aurélio. Baraja and Ayala would soon become a staple of Valencia's dominance of early 2000s in La Liga.

Valencia started the championship on the right foot and were top after 10 games, after the Christmas break Valencia started to pay for the top demand that such an absorbing competition like the Champions League requires. After passing the two mini-league phases, Cúper's team eliminated Arsenal in quarter finals and Leeds United in the semi-finals, and got ready to face Bayern Munich in the big final, Valencia had now reached two European Cup finals in a row. This time the final was to be played in Milan and at the San Siro, on 23 May. Gaizka Mendieta gave Valencia the lead by scoring from the penalty spot right at the start of the match, Cañizares then stopped a penalty from Mehmet Scholl, but Stefan Effenberg drew level after the break thanks to another penalty. After extra time, it was a penalty shoot-out to decide who would be European champions, Valencia, or Bayern Munich. Mauricio Pellegrino was the man who missed to give Bayern European glory and give Valencia heartbreak for the second season running in the biggest game in club football. For Valencia, it was difficult to recover from the blow in Milan, it culminated in Valencia finishing 5th in La Liga and out of the Champions League for the 2001–02 season, the final game of the season meant Valencia only needed a draw at the Nou Camp against Barcelona to seal Champions League qualification, unfortunately for Los Che they lost to Barcelona 3–2 at the Nou Camp, with a last minute goal from Rivaldo resulting in Barcelona qualifying for the Champions League and Valencia missing out, in a head-to-head tie.

The president, D. Pedro Cortés, resigned due to personal reasons and left the club in July, with the satisfaction of having won the King’s Cup, one Spanish Super Cup and having been runners up in two Champions League finals in a row. D. Jaime Ortí replaced him as president and expressed his intention on maintaining the good form that had made the club so admired on the European circuit. There were also some changes in the team and staff, Rafael Benítez, after helping Tenerife to promotion, replaced Héctor Cúper after the latter became the new coach at Internazionale. Among the footballers, Mendieta, Deschamps, Milla, Zahović and Gerard left, and Marchena, Mista, Curro Torres, Rufete, de los Santos, and Salva arrived.

From 1999 up until the end of the 2004 season, Valencia had one of the their most successful periods in the club's history. With a total of two La Liga titles, one UEFA Cup, one Copa del Rey and one UEFA Super Cup, in those six years, no less than five first class titles and two UEFA Champions League finals had been achieved.
During Valencia's domestic and European dominance of the early 2000's, Argentine Roberto Ayala had been a key component in their defense.

The 2001–02 season brought Valencia a La Liga title, 31 years after the last title crown. There were new incorporations to the team, manager Rafael Benítez and the new players of Marchena, Mista, Curro Torres, Rufete, de los Santos and Salva.

That first game against fellow title rivals Real Madrid, produced a significant and important victory. This was followed by a record of eleven games won consecutively, breaking the existing one set in the 1970–71 season, the season they had last won the La Liga title under Alfredo di Stéfano.

After a defeat in La Coruña against Deportivo on 9 December 2001, the team had to win against Espanyol in the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys to prevent falling further behind the league leaders. Valencia were 2–0 down at half time, but a comeback in the second half saw Valencia win 3–2.

In the second part of the season, Benítez's team suffered a small setback after losing 1–0 in the Santiago Bernabéu to Real Madrid, but they recovered from this setback and achieved four victories and two draws in the following six games. The games against Las Palmas, Athletic de Bilbao, Deportivo Alavés, Real Zaragoza and Barça.

In one of those crucial games that they would come up against Espanyol, Valencia were trailing 1–0 half-time and a man down too with the dismissal of Carboni, but after two goals from Rubén Baraja, Valencia achieved a 2–1 victory. Furthermore, Real Madrid's defeat in Anoeta to Real Sociedad left Valencia with a three-point lead at the top of the table.

The final game of the season was at La Rosaleda to face Málaga, on 5 May 2002, a date that has gone down in Valencia’s history. The team shut itself away in Benalmádena, close to the scene of the game, in order to gain focus. An early goal from Ayala and another close to half-time from Fábio Aurélio, assured them their fifth La Liga title, 31 years after their last title win.

The 2002–03 season was a disappointing one for Valencia, as they failed in their attempt to retain the La Liga title and ended up outside of the Champions League spots in fifth, behind Celta de Vigo. They were also knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League by Internazionale on away goals. The 2003–04 season saw Valencia trailing the long time leaders Real Madrid. In February, after 26 games played, Real Madrid were eight points clear.[3] However, their form declined in the late season and they lost their last five games of the campaign, allowing Valencia to overtake them and win the title. The club added the UEFA Cup to this success. Valencia had now been La Liga champions twice in three seasons.

In the summer of 2004, coach Rafa Benítez decided to leave the club stating he had had problems with the club president, he would soon become manager of Liverpool. He was replaced by former Valencia coach Claudio Ranieri, who had recently been sacked by Chelsea. However, his second reign at the club was a disappointment as Valencia harboured realistic hopes of retaining their La Liga crown but, by February, found themselves in 7th place. Valencia had also been knocked out of the Champions League group phase, with Ranieri being sacked promptly in February. The 2004-2005 season ended with Valencia outside of the UEFA Cup spots.

In the summer of 2005, Getafe coach Quique Sánchez Flores was appointed as the new manager of Valencia and ended the season in third place, which in turn gained Valencia a place in the Champions League after a season away from the competition. The 2006–07 season was a season with many difficulties, a season which started with realistic hopes of challenging for La Liga was disrupted with a huge list of injuries to key players and internal arguments between Flores and new Sporting Director Amedeo Carboni. Valencia ended the season in fourth place and were knocked out of the Champions League at the quarter-finals stage by Chelsea 3–2 on aggregate, after knocking out Italian champions Inter in the second round. In the summer of 2007, the internal fight between Flores and Carboni was settled with Carboni being replaced by Ángel Ruiz as the new Sporting Director of Valencia.

On 29 October 2007, the Valencia board of directors fired Flores after a string of disappointing performances and caretaker manager Óscar Rubén Fernández took over on a temporary basis until a full-time manager was found, rumoured to be either Marcello Lippi or José Mourinho. A day later, Dutch manager Ronald Koeman announced he would be leaving PSV to sign for Valencia. But there was still no improvement; in fact, Valencia even went on to drop to the 15th position in the league, just two points above the relegation zone. Although on 16 April 2008, Valencia lifted the Copa del Rey with a 3–1 victory over Getafe at the Vicente Calderón. This was the club's 7th Copa title. Five days later, one day after a devastating 5–1 league defeat in Bilbao, Valencia fired Ronald Koeman and replaced him with Voro, who would guide Valencia as Caretaker Manager for the rest of the season. He went on to win the first game since the sacking of Koeman, beating Osasuna 3–0 in his first game in charge. Voro would eventually drag Valencia from the relegation battle to a safe mid-table finish of 10th place, finally ending a disastrous league campaign for Los Che.

Highly-rated Unai Emery was announced as the new manager of Valencia on 22 May 2008. The start of the young manager's career looked to be promising, with the club winning four out of its first five games, a surge that saw the team rise to the top position of the La Liga table. Despite looking impressive in Europe, Los Che then hit a poor run of form in the league that saw them dip as low as seventh in the standings. Amid the slump emerged reports of a massive internal debt at the club exceeding 400 million Euros, as well as that the players had been unpaid in weeks. The team's problems were compounded when they were knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Dynamo Kyiv on away goals. After a run where Valencia took only five points from a possible ten games in La Liga, an announcement was made that the club had secured a loan that would cover the players' expenses until the end of the year. This announcement coincided with an upturn in form, and the club won six of its next eight games to surge back into the critical fourth place Champions' League spot. However, Los Che were then defeated by 4th place rivals Atlético Madrid and Villarreal in two of the last three games of the campaign, and finished sixth in the table, which meant they failed to qualify for a second successive year for the Champions League. No solution had yet been found to address the massive the debt Valencia were faced with, and rumours persisted that top talents such as David Villa, Juan Mata, and David Silva could leave the club to help balance the books.

Stadium

Valencia played its first years at the Algirós stadium but moved to the Mestalla in 1923. In the 1950s, Mestalla was restructured, which resulted in a capacity increase to 45,000 spectators. Today it holds 55,000 seats. However, Valencia is scheduled to move to a new stadium in the north-west of the city Valencia in 2010. The Nou Mestalla, as it will be called, will hold around 75,000 spectators and will be given a 5 star status by FIFA. It ranks as the fifth largest stadium in Spain. It is also renowned for its steep terracing and being one of the most intimidating atmospheres in all of Europe to play at.

On 20 May 1923, the Mestalla pitch was inaugurated with a friendly match that brought Valencia CF and Levante UD face to face. It was the beginning of a new era that meant farewell to the old place, Algirós, which will always remain in the memories of the Valencians as first home of the club. A long history has treaded on the Mestalla field since its very beginning, when the Valencia team was not yet in the Primera División. Back then, this stadium could hold 17,000 spectators, and in that time the club started to show its potential in regional championships, which led the managers of that time to carry out the first alterations of Mestalla in 1927. The stadium's total capacity increased to 25,000 before it became severely damaged during the Civil War.

Mestalla was used as concentration camp and junk warehouse. It would only keep its structure, since the rest was a lonely plot of land with no terraces and a stand broken during the war. Once the Valencian pitch was renovated, Mestalla saw how the team managed to bring home their first title, the 1941 Cup. An overwhelming team was playing on the grass of the redesigned Valencian stadium in that decade, team that conquered three League titles and two Cups with the legendary ‘electric forwards’ of Epi, Amadeo, Mundo, Asensi and Guillermo Gorostiza. Those years of sporting success also served as support to recover little by little the Mestalla ground.

During the decade of the fifties, the Valencia ground experienced the deepest change in its whole history. That project resulted in a stadium with a capacity of 45,500 spectators. It was a dream that was destroyed by the flood that flooded Valencia in October 1957 after the overflowing of the Turia River. Nevertheless, Mestalla not only returned to normality, but also some more improvements were added, like artificial light, which was inaugurated during the 1959 Fallas festivities. This was the beginning of a new change for the Mestalla.

During the sixties, the stadium kept the same appearance, whilst the urban view around it was quickly being transformed. Moreover, the Valencian domain became from that moment on, the setting of big European feats. Nottingham Forest was the first foreign team that played an official match in Mestalla with the "Che" club. They played on 15 September 1961 and it was the first clash of a golden age full of continental successes, reinforced with the Fairs Cup won in 1962 and 1963. Mestalla had just entered the European competitions as a stadium where the most important events were taking place.

From 1969, the expression "Anem a Mestalla" (Let’s go to Mestalla), so common among the supporters, started to fall into oblivion. The reason was the change of name that meant a big tribute that the club paid to his most symbolic president that lasted for a quarter of a century. Luis Casanova Giner admitted that he was completely overwhelmed by such honour, and the president himself requested in 1994 that his name was again replaced by the name of Mestalla, as it happened. At the beginning of the seventies, the local bench of the back-then-called Luis Casanova stadium was occupied by Alfredo Di Stéfano, whose results were the winning of one League competition, one second place in the League and two Cup finals lost by the minimum difference. Moreover, Valencia participated for the first time in the European Cup and made their debut in the UEFA Cup. It all was a series of events that made that every match in the stadium located in Suecia Avenue turned into a big party.

In 1972, the head office of the club, located in the back of the numbered terraces, was inaugurated. It consisted of an office of avant-garde style with a worth mentioning trophy hall, which held the foundation flag of the club. In the summer of 1973 there was another new thing, the goal seats, which meant the elimination of fourteen rows of standing terraces providing more comfort and an adjustment to the new times. Valencia's management started to consider the possibility of moving Mestalla from its present location to some land in the outskirts of the town, but finally the project was turned down and some years later.

At that time, Mario Kempes, subsequently considered one of the greatest footballers in the world by Pele[4] was playing for Valencia. With the Matador in its team, Valencia won the Copa del Rey, the Cup Winners Cup and European Super Cup in consecutive years. The "Che" team became continental superchampion in the last European final played in Mestalla. It was in 1980 against Nottingham Forest, which oddly enough was the first foreign team that had played an official match in the Valencian stadium.

Mestalla, which in 1925 had held the first match of the Spain national football team in Valencia, was chosen as the setting for the debut of Spain in the 1982 World Cup, although the performance of the combined national team was not finally what was expected. Ten years later, the Olympic team would look for support in the Valencian stadium, this time with a very different result, since the selected young footballers finally got the gold medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona.

Mestalla has been the setting for important international matches, has held several Cup finals, has been seat for Levante UD, home of the Spanish national team and exile for Castellón and Real Madrid in the European Cup.

2008-2009 was to have been the last season at the Mestalla, with the club moving to their new 75,000-seater stadium Nou Mestalla in time for the 2009-2010 season. However, the club is in financial crisis[5], and work on the new stadium has stopped.

During the 1920s the revenge spirit and sports tension were increasing every time the different teams in the Regional Championship had to meet. In 1923 Valencia became regional champions and could participate in the Copa del Rey for the first time in their history. The progress in the results of the team proved that they were able to become leaders of the football within the Valencian capital. Three or four years after its foundation, Valencia was already the most fearsome enemy for the rest of teams and their fanbase was growing.

The importance of the Valencia team was reinforced due to the fact that they had very good players like Montes or Cubells, who wanted something more than regional football. The fans split up between the staunch supporters for one and those for the other player, like if it all was about two bullfighters: on one hand, there were the cubellistas, and on the other, the montistas. Such rivalry was good for the team, since both players had a common objective: defending the colours of Valencia Club de Fútbol.

Arturo Montesinos, Montes, due to his physical characteristics (he was 1.90 m tall), was a more aggressive player than Cubells. Eduardo Cubells, much more technical than the aforementioned player, was the first international player provided by Valencia and the second one in the Valencian Community, after Agustín Sancho, a player from Cabanes who played in F.C. Barcelona.

Returning to the first participation of Valencia in the Copa del Rey, the whole Turia river capital was full of excitement. The opponents were Sporting Gijón. The first match was played in Algirós, which had a record capacity. The result was 1-0 for Valencia, goal scored by Montes. A month later, the return match was a big defeat (6-1) for Valencia in Gijón, although since the competition was accounted by points a third match had to be played, which took place in Oviedo, in which Sporting won again 2-0.

Despite the defeat, Valencia took advantage of the fact that they played an important team at a domestic level, since the number of supporters of the “Che” team increased. This progressive increase of the interest in Valencia made the Valencian managers start to look for land that was up for sale in order to build a new stadium for the team. They found one located by the Mestalla irrigation channel.